In 2014, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources formed the West Virginia Health Innovation Collaborative to map a new strategic vision for a healthy and prosperous West Virginia. Today, the collaborative held its quarterly meeting with more than 70 stakeholders in attendance.
“The goal of the West Virginia Health Innovation Collaborative is to bring stakeholders together in a cooperative, encouraging and supportive manner to strengthen the health and well-being of West Virginians,” DHHR Cabinet Secretary Karen L. Bowling said. “The collaborative aims to be proactive, working collaboratively and committing to better health outcomes, better health care and lower costs.”
The collaborative is a public/private partnership open to all stakeholders and serves as an inventory for health innovation initiatives. Additionally, it facilitates the sharing of best practices while exploring and developing strategies to improve the health care system in West Virginia.
In December 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that West Virginia was one of 21 awardees to receive Model Design funding as part of the State Innovation Models (SIM) Initiative. At today’s meeting, Jeffrey Coben, M.D., professor in the WVU Department of Health Policy, Management, and Leadership and principal investigator for the project, provided an overview of the SIM Grant.
Officials from Try This also were on hand to discuss their philosophy of health promotion using an evidence-based, socio-ecological model. Try This believes that people can make healthy lifestyle changes more easily if healthy choices are available locally. www.trythiswv.com
For more information on the collaborative, please visit www.wvhicollaborative.wv.gov.
Allison C. Adler, DHHR Director of Communications, allison.c.adler@wv.gov